Stefano Domencali, team boss at Ferrari, has said that Felipe Massa’s disasterous pit-stop was caused by human error, not technical.
In a pit stop during the Singapore Grand Prix, Felipe Massa was given the green light by his pit release system to leave his pit box. Unfortunately, the refuelling hose was still attached to his car and he had to stop just before the pit exit and wait for it to be detached by his mechanics, effectively losing him the race. After the disastrous first pit-stop, the team reverted back to the more traditional lollipop method to ensure that the second pit stop went more smoothly.
“Unfortunately there was a mistake,†Domenicali admitted about the Singapore error. “It was not an electronic system, it was run manually, because normally in that condition when there are a lot of cars coming in that safety car situation.
“It is better to have like a lollipop but instead of a lollipop you control the green light and unfortunately there was a mistake.
“We will analyse what we did in the other pit stop because it was a tense moment. Again a guy was knocked down. He’s OK, no problem at all, but it’s a very tense moment.
“So we preferred not to use [the electronic system] for the other pit stop because we wanted to give a sign of less tension because it’s a system that is trying to give as good performance as possible. That’s the reason why we didn’t use it for the others.”
Both Massa and Domenicali have both said that the issue was a human error, not a technical one, and that it could have happened with either system.
“When you see a green light to go, that means that you have to go,†Domenicali continued. “It doesn’t matter. The green was on because he had to go. If we didn’t have the traffic light, we would have had the lollipop up. In that respect it didn’t change the specific scenario that we have today.”
“It was not a technical failure but a human one,†Massa explained. “The same thing can happen with any system. Of course we could return to using a lollipop, but today s problem was not about this. These things happen. We are all human and we can all make mistakes.â€
